Diamondbacks To Sign Josh Thole

The Diamondbacks have agreed to a minor-league deal with catcher Josh Thole, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). His potential salary and other terms have not been reported at this time.

Thole, 30, had spent the last four years with the Blue Jays after an equivalent stint with the Mets. He went with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey in the 2012 swap between those organizations, and continued to function as Dickey’s personal catcher in Toronto.

Though he rates as a high-quality blocker and framer behind the dish, and did hit at around a league-average rate earlier in his career, the left-handed hitter has trailed off over the last five seasons. Things reached a breaking point over the last two years, as he compiled an anemic .180/.253/.228 batting line in his 188 plate appearances.

Thole joins an increasingly crowded backstop mix in Arizona. After non-tendering Welington Castillo, the organization has added Chris Iannetta and Jeff Mathis to go with incumbent Chris Herrmann. Presumably, Thole will open the year in the upper minors to function as depth, though it’s certainly possible that plans could change over the course of the spring.

O’ Brien has no position on the field. And the bat isn’t really good enough even for DH duties, which is a moot point since the Diamondbacks play in the NL. There may have been some hope that the NL would adopt the DH as part of the new CBA, but once that failed to materialize all these NL teams will start dumping their DH-only guys.

This is the first I’ve heard of talks in the CBA about having a DH in the NL, I’d actually like to see them remove the DH from the AL, this way it would remove the one tool hitters in the game and force some teams to use the forgotten aspect of small ball to produce runs.